Alexandre Pato is the latest in a line of strange Chelsea signings (Picture: Getty Images)

Is Financial Fair Play taking its toll? Do players not fancy joining a club with such frequent managerial changes, or where a loan move is more likely than ever making a single first-team appearance?

Whatever the reason, here’s a look at five woefully bad Chelsea signings that show the club has lost its touch in the transfer market…

Radamel Falcao has one goal for Chelsea so far (Picture: Getty Images)

1. Radamel Falcao

An almost identical signing to Pato, Radamel Falcao joined on loan from Monaco in the summer on the back of a desperately poor season at Manchester United.

Clearly past his best, Chelsea for some reason felt it was worth taking a punt on the Colombian, but their lack of ambition in the market saw them run into trouble when first-choice front-man Diego Costa hit a slump.

While the Blues used to always aim to improve their squad, this was an unambitious move for a player never intended to be more than a stop-gap, with any odd goal here or there merely a bonus.

A sentimental signing more than anything else, a 36-year-old Didier Drogba was brought back for a second spell at Chelsea last summer.

Scoring only seven goals all season, the Ivorian showed, to the surprise of no one, that he is no longer the player he used to be. To make things worse, he was gone again after just a year, leaving the club in need of another new signing up front.

In perhaps the worst showing of short-sightedness by Chelsea, Drogba was actually brought in at the expense of Romelu Lukaku, one of the best young players in the game, who was shipped out to Everton. The Belgian is now second in the Premier League scoring charts.